MONTENEGRO SHOULD FEAR INDEPENDENT KOSOVO - SERB LEADER
BBC Monitoring International Reports - February 6, 2007 Tuesday

Text of report by M.B. entitled "Ivanovic: Montenegro a part of Greater Albania" published by the Montenegrin newspaper Dan on 6 February

Milan Ivanovic, chairman of the Serbian National Council (SNV), criticized the Montenegrin government for remaining silent about the Kosovo and Metohija plan of UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari. He says that the Podgorica regime continues to implement the policy of burying its head in the sand.

"The Albanians are announcing that, if the independent Kosovo scenario was implemented, they would create an ethnically pure Albanian area. The Montenegrin government should say something, if not because of Serbia then because of the future of Montenegro, since the position of this republic will be awkward if Kosovo and Metohija becomes independent. Montenegro would become an obstacle on the path to Greater Albania. Podgorica should still react, if not because of the 260,000 Montenegrin nationals in Serbia, of the Serbs with Montenegrin origins, of the 30,000 citizens who declared themselves as Montenegrins in the census of 1981 then because Montenegro will be the first step towards Greater Albania," Ivanovic has told Dan.

He announced that the Serbs who live in Kosovo and Metohija will jointly reach a decision on what to do in case Kosovo independence is declared.

Source: Dan, Podgorica, in Serbian 6 Feb 07 p5

Copyright 2007 Financial Times Information
Copyright 2007 BBC Monitoring/BBC Source: Financial Times Information Limited

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